Summary

The narrative shifts to 1952 and to Irén’s narration. In the intervening years, Bálint was taken prisoner, and the Biró household was seized by the new Soviet government. The Elekeses and Mrs. Temes were forced to move into a new, smaller apartment. They presumed Bálint to be dead until he returned in 1949. He began medical work in a nearby hospital and moved in with the Elekeses. Irén became a schoolteacher. Irén and Bálint are not married, and the years of Bálint’s captivity seem to have made their plans to become engaged moot. Irén still wishes to marry Bálint, but he does not seem to share that wish. She is highly distraught for this and eventually gets rid of her engagement ring, as Bálint seems to have done. Blanka is quite angry on behalf...